Okay, this is late this week – just a day, but still … I had six events to do in four days … including two of the most incredible days of the Denver UMX I can remember as an emcee over the past nine years. Between that and four straight nights of doing sound, I’m feeling a bit foggy and brain dead (and slightly hearing damaged). I know that I’ll miss someone I saw on stage or in the crowd but I do have to point out some notables … starting with the Yawpers on Friday night.
When you see two guys with acoustic guitars plus a drummer take the stage and you’re asking where the bass player and electric instruments are and the band says “this is it” you begin to wonder if those responsible for booking the band even bothered to check the band out previously — seriously. You just don’t see this type of set up … and virtually never on a Friday night in a room that doesn’t do acoustic music on Friday nights. BUT – this is NO “just simply acoustic” band. Never fear – these guys literally and figuratively “rock the house.” Given that Band Guru Mark Bliesener (Danielle Ate the Sandwich and several nationals) showed up and let me know he was the band’s manager – it became very obvious very quickly that this is a band on the verge of blowing up regionally. Look for great things — and get thee to a show. Their ep, Savage Blue, just does not do this band justice. Make the trip kids .. it’s worth it.
Shout outs to many friends at the UMX this weekend. The UMX is the official audition for the Capitol Hill People’s Fair, now in its 41st year. Most of the folks playing in bands were not even born then… check it out at PeoplesFair.com … there were over 80 acts auditioning for one of about 40 open slots in this year’s festival, coming up June 2&3 at Civic Park in Denver. All in all about 110 acts will take one of six stages this June. The bands that came out to audition came loaded, locked, and ready to rumble for a slot. I cannot remember any other wkend in the past nine years where so many bands were so highly scored. All I can say it … good luck .. when the ballots are tabulated it’s going to be the highest scoring UMX season on record, I’m sure.
Props to The Holler out of Fort Collins – who totally rocked the house with one of the tightest sets on Saturday – they definitely brought the party and set the bar for every act that followed them. Other very impressive sets were turned in by The Foot., Rebel Tongue, the Blender Cats, Instant Empire, Gang Forward, and Jet Edison to name a handful.
Here’s what got played on the show this week.
Dan Fogelberg “Stars” from Live From Ebbet’s Field Vol. 4 (2010)
(N) Coles Whalen “Paper Airplane” from I Wrote This for You (2012)
(D) JD Feighner “Feel The Way I Do” [single] (2012)
Beats Noir! “Not For You” from 13 Tracks From the Dark Side of The Beat (2011)
Future Jazz Project “Faded Memories” from True By Design (2007)
Catch Bees “Atlanta” from Newman’s Open Choir (2012)
(N) Lumineers “Big Parade” from Lumineers (2012)
(D) The Jekylls “Where Were You” from The Sweet Factory (2012)Boenzee Cryque “I’ve Never Known A Girl” from Psychedelic States: Colorado in the Sixties (2007)
(D) J. Miller Band “The Reasons” from The Road to Elvado (2012)
Finnders and Youngberg “Nebraska” from FY5 (2011)
Paper Bird “Steady As” from When the River Took Flight (2010)
Greg Garrison “Blackwell’s Reel” from Low Lonesome (2011)
Otis Taylor “Walk Right In” from Recapturing the Banjo (2008)
(N) Katie Glassman “Bye Bye Boise” from Snapshot (2012)
(D) Grant Farm “I Come From the Country” from Grant Farm (2012)Charlotte Sass “Not Alone” from Lighter Things (2012)
OneRepublic “Everybody Loves Me” from Waking Up (2009)
Achille Lauro “Upward Away From the Ground” from Flight or Flight (2012)
(N) Churchill “Change” from Change EP (2012)
(D) The Pretty Sure “Hot Sass” from Subtle Sabotage (2012)Johnny Hickman “The Great Decline” from Palmehenge (2005)
Patti Fiasco “Someone Tell Me” from The Patti Fiasco (2010)
(D) Musketeer Gripweed “Thief” from Straight Razor Revival (2012)Fox Street Allstars “Baby Don’t Fight It” from Welcome to the Mighty Pleasin’ (2011)
Lelah Simon “To Be Oblique” from Third Week of April (2009)
Chris K's Colorado Playlist 